Powerful bomb rips through the UN Headquarters in Iraq, Bush blames terrorists -- who will Americans blame?
By Stewart Nusbaumer
When a truck packed with explosives blew its deadly force onto the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, shearing off a side of the Canal Hotel, the President of the United States was on the 12th hole of a Texas golf course, and the Secretary General of the United Nations was on vacation in Denmark. Evidently, they can’t read the writing on the wall: the war in Iraq is not going well for them.
The media's talking heads, however, were not on vacation. They sprang right into action explaining why this horror happened: there were not enough guards at the U.N. building, there was not a vehicle registration process, there was too little U.S. military firepower at the site, there was too little surveillance of the area, the perimeter was not extended far enough, truncated landscaping (concrete barriers, trenches) was missing, ….
Not a single security "expert," however, not a single talking head on CNN or Fox or MSNBC, had the simple thought that the bombing happened because Iraq is occupied by the U.S. military and the U.N. is an instrument of this occupation. This was off their thought screen, or possibly only off what they can say when on the television screen.
“Terrorists,” President Bush announced, after a quick change of clothes. “Terrorists,” Attorney General pronounced. “Terrorists,” Vice President Cheney declared with an ugly hiss. “Terrorists,” “Terrorists,” “Terrorists” -- Administration spokespeople fanning out on the airwaves parroted.
Not “Freedom Fighters,” but “Terrorists.” If it had been the former Soviet Union that was occupying Iraq instead of the United States that is liberating Iraq, then the driver of that explosives-packed truck would have been a “Freedom Fighter” instead of a “terrorist.”
Regardless, the dead are dead. Seventeen dead is the current number, with over a hundred wounded. Some of the latter will certainly join the former, the dead. It’s a horrible tragedy.
After every horrible tragedy, there comes the question: Why? Why did this happen? The Bush Administration’s answer is clear: blood thirsty killers, terrorists!
“Terrorists are testing our will,” the President insisted, looking vacation tan. His implicit message was obvious, yet hardly touched upon by the pundits. This act in Baghdad is part of a continuum starting at the World Trade Center and Pentagon on 9-11 and traveling through the fighting in Afghanistan and the occupation of Iraq. It’s all one war, with one cause: terrorism.
“But our will cannot be shaken,” the President continued, glaring defiantly at the camera.
Of course our national will can be shaken. Determination is not some abstraction unrelated to facts and circumstances, national determination is not the product of a President's strong words and angry looks and macho gestures. Determination is closely related to cause, the stronger the cause, the more valid the cause, the stronger the determination.
We've lost our resolution in the past. A Republican President named Nixon left Vietnam without a victory, a Democrat President named Clinton yanked U.S. troops out of Somalia leaving the country in utter chaos, and another Republican President named Reagan hightailed out of Beirut after 251 Marines were slaughtered in a similar vehicle bombing. In all three cases, the determination of Americans was undermined by the realization that the human costs were too high for the policy goals. It just didn't make sense to Americans that young Americans should die for the government's stated purposes.
The cardinal lesson of Vietnam is that the U.S. military should never be committed unless the national security of the United States is clearly threatened and the American people strongly support the deployment of our troops. In Vietnam, this was not the case. In Beirut, this was not the case. In Somalia, this was not the case. And in Iraq, this is also not the case.
Th Bush Administration disagrees, they believe Iraq is worth Americans dying. Let's remember, however, than none of the Administration's primary men and women went to Vietnam (it's now clear that Colin Powell is not a major figure in this Administration), none have made significant sacrifices for a weak cause, an unjust cause, and none currently have children fighting in Iraq. They never paid the human cost and won't pay the cost in Iraq.
The Administration was ineffective in making the case that the despicable Saddam Hussein was a threat to the United States, and regardless of the misuse of opinion polls, the public never strongly supported the invasion of Iraq and has been less supportive of the occupation. Nothing surprising about this.
Bush & Company have spent most of their lives sheltered by wealth and privilege, they have avoided the hard lumps of life in the school yard of ugly lessons. They have lived largely free from troubling ramifications and the hassles of life, since lowly assistants have quickly cleaned up their messes. They have been free from the fear of failure since powerful connections have insured their success even when they failed. George Bush and his primary advisors are a pampered, protected group. They just don't understand what is happening.
They were clueless that Iraqis would fight the U.S. military; they thought Iraqis' “will” would immediately collapse as the M-1 tanks rumbled through the streets of Baghdad. They were clueless that Iraqis would hold Americans responsible for their dysfunctional infrastructure; they thought U.S. companies would immediately breed happy consumers and economic game-players overnight. And they are clueless that Americans do not view their children as expendable except in the most urgent and threatening situations.
Protected and isolated, Bush & Company have constructed a fantasy that the Arab "street” is weak, pliable, easily broken in spirit and therefore easily led to the great fountain of material obsession. This is exactly how they see the American "street"-- you seen one hungry consumer, you've seen all hungry consumers. They know the American "street" about as well as they know the Arab "street."
If the guerrilla war in Iraq continues, and there is every indication it will, every indication it will become more bloody, then in time a massive political bomb will explode here. Americans will demand the withdraw of our military from Iraq because the costs are not worth the cause. Terrorism in Iraq is not terrorism in America, and the latter is all Americans are willing to give their young to stop.
Maybe this time Bush will not change from his golfing clothes but simply walk to the 13th hole. That's where he belongs, and what he truly knows, the golf "street."
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